Pablito Pablito Pablito Aimar

The World No. 81 hit 17 aces and was able to convert one of three break points to win the second all-French final in Lyon, after Richard Gasquet defeated Gicquel for the title last year. Grosjean becomes the sixth Frenchman to have won the Lyon title, joining Yannick Noah (1987), Fabrice Santoro (1997), Arnaud Clement (2000), Paul-Henri Mathieu (2002) and Gasquet (2006).

This was the second ATP singles final this year to feature two Frenchmen after Fabrice Santoro defeated Nicolas Mahut in the Newport final in the summer.

Prior to his title run in Lyon, Grosjean had failed to reach a semifinal in 2007, finishing as a quarterfinalist three times in Casablanca (l. to Ramirez-Hidalgo), Munich (l. to Kohlschreiber) and Metz (l. to Robredo).

The 29-year-old Grosjean now stands at 4-9 in ATP singles finals. He won his maiden title in 2000 at Nottingham (d. Blake), clinched his second in 2001 at AMS Paris (d. Kafelnikov), and won his most recent one in 2002 in St. Petersburg (d. Youzhny).

Grosjean’s best previous effort in Lyon had been a semifinal appearance in 2004 (l. to Monfils). En route to the title he defeated all compatriots, namely Rodolphe Cadart, Fabrice Santoro, Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

The Frenchman also claimed the doubles title with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He becomes the third player this year to win the singles and doubles titles at the same event, after Malisse (who did so twice, at Chennai and Delray Beach) and Kohlschreiber (who did so once, at Munich).

World No. 79 Gicquel defeated Grosjean in their only previous encounter, a year ago in the Lyon quarterfinals.

The 30-year-old was contesting his second career ATP singles final, having finished runner-up in his first, a year ago in Lyon (l. to Gasquet).

Gicquel was playing in Lyon for the third time. En route to the final, he recorded his career first victory over a Top 10 player in defeating World No. 9 and No. 2 seed Tommy Robredo in the first round.

It was also Italian Romano Grillotti's final match as a professional umpire.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Grosjean: "I'm very happy with my level of play today. This season wasn't a very good one for me and it's great to finally win a title and enjoy myself on court again. I also want to thank my coach Bernard Fritz. He was there for me when it didn't go well this summer and it's great to win this title with him in my box. We've known each others for a long time and he's almost like a second father for me."

[About winning his first title since St. Petersburg in 2002:] "Emotionally this win is more important than St. Petersburg and also than Nottingham. Of course my biggest title is still Bercy where I qualified for the Masters by winning the title in 2001. It's great to win in France, as several French players did here in Lyon before."

Gicquel: "Last year I didn't play very well in the Lyon final. This year I got closer. Sebastien served well and played very solid. He was really constant during the whole match. I was fighting until the end but he kept his high level until the end of the match. This was a very positive week for me. I beat Robredo in the first round and I was able to defend my points here which was crucial for the beginning of 2008. Of course it's disappointing to lose my second final here in Lyon. But besides that I'm really happy with my performance and my game this week."

果醬最可愛的就是，他總是把帽子反戴，襯上小小的身軀，還有一貫的白色系球衫，真的很可愛

我認識他是在...2004還2005的澳網？法網？不確定了...

我覺得他有跟DP一樣溫柔的雙眼，跟令人疼惜的氣質。

身為小個子俱樂部的一員(他跟Coria是好朋友說)，29歲的果醬，明年繼續加油!!